Dunleavy calls new special session; attacks Wielechowski as 'bullshitter'

Dunleavy called Sen. Bill Wielechowski a “bullshitter” after a press conference Thursday night, following rejection of a compromise gasline bill that would have also closed the Hilcorp loophole.

Dunleavy also complained about Sen. Cathy Giessel and said those two senators are the problem.

“Wielechowski said he’d love to know specifically what the governor ‘thinks I’m bullshitting about,’’ the Anchorage Daily News said.

“Looking for a scapegoat is a normal response, so I don’t blame him for that,” Giessel told the Daily News. “Considering he’s been absent (from Juneau) this whole time, he wouldn’t know the Senate Majority views this as a priority.”

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Dermot Cole Comments
Close the Hilcorp loophole today—save jobs and the PFD

Alaskans have had plenty of time to understand the Hilcorp loophole and how to plug it.

The compromise gas line bill up in the Legislature today would do the job. Ignore the moaning and groaning from Hilcorp and the members of oil company benevolent society.

Republican members of the Legislature are pretending that no one has studied or analyzed this matter, which is not true.

The gridlock in state government, enabled by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his allies in the Legislature, has prevented the state from closing the loophole.

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Dermot Cole Comments
Republicans refuse to say that Trump lost in 2020

For six years, Trump has continued to lie about the 2020 election, with the eager approval of nearly every Republican in Congress. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is an exception to the rule.

Begich will continue to lie about the election. Sullivan, if ever pressed on the topic, will not repeat his 2021 condemnation of Trump or say that Trump’s “blatant disregard” of Pence, “infuriates me.”

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Dermot Cole Comments
Todd Blanche will be a big issue in the Sullivan campaign

Sen. Dan Sullivan didn’t make a big show of hanging out with Todd Blanche when Trump’s unqualified choice for attorney general visited Alaska last week.

Sullivan would have found a way to accompany Blanche if he were not facing a tough election fight with Mary Peltola. Sullivan is keeping his head down about Blanche, which is Sullivan’s go-to strategy on any matter that carries a political risk.

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Dermot Cole Comments
Shelley Hughes and her clueless claim about Alaska's giant land grant

Alaska entered the union in 1959 with a land grant that exceeded the size of California, more than 100 million acres.

But Republican gubernatorial candidate Shelley Hughes, 68, is claiming that Alaska got shafted under the deal negotiated over many years by Alaskans and members of congress who led the charge to create the state.

She claims that the only thing to do now is get the Trump administration to increase the land grant approved in 1958 by about 5 percent.

This is one of the issues on which she is clueless.

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Dermot Cole Comments